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Yes, even more on this topic! I think I'm running out of subjects I feel like venting about though :) I'm using "artist" in a broad sense which covers writers etc.
I don't think there's such a thing as a Real Artist, not in the sense which is in opposition to Wannabe Artists. I think that if you want to be an artist and you put your heart into creating Art then you are an artist, and that's it. Now not everyone is a good artist (though obviously judging the line is very subjective) and certainly not everyone is a professional artist. But that's about all you can say.
The Ideal Artist spends their whole life wanting to be an Artist, and goes to Art School(*), and the moment they can they quit their day job to Create Art all day, and that Art is brilliant, and they make all their living expenses off it.
But a HUGE proportion of people that noone questions the Real Artist Status of don't fit that description. There are people at every space on the continuum between Ideal Artist and Not An Artist At All. This is particularly evident if you hang out in places where there's no common explicit marker of success like being published. Where do you draw the line for Real Artist for webcomics?(**) Or fanfic?
A huge number of famous artists were never appreciated in their lifetimes.
Some very talented artists actively avoided being published/sold etc (eg Kafka).
A lot of moderately successful artists still have day jobs.
A lot of people with day jobs create stuff in their spare time.
A great many artists just saw their art as a hobby until it took off.
A great many hobbyists make money from their art.
A lot of people who do spend their whole lives wanting to be artists and quit their day jobs to pursue it are quite likely to never be appreciated, because as much as such a thing can be objectively quantified, they suck.
And yes, this is a bit personal for me, because something I realised during my Phd is that I don't have it in me to sit in my garret doing any one thing all day, whether it be maths or art or whatever. But Creating Stuff is still a vital part of who I am and what I do.
I think the reason full time professional artists can get so narky on the subject is that there's no immediately discernible difference between, say, an unemployed person who has a creative hobby to fill the time and a professional artist who just hasn't sold anything yet, and some of the former like to act as if they're the latter. Which I can imagine would be really annoying.
But policing that boundary too strongly is unfair to all the part-time/up-and-coming/unsuccessful professional artists, and it seems to cause a huge amount of self doubt and angst. And unless you believe that a piece of art's quality is measured by how much money it makes(***) then I think it's important to remember that one can be a Real Artist without being, or wanting to be, a professional artist at all.
(*)This step is less compulsory for Real Writers
(**)Some webcomics are published, but a lot of these are self published via on-demand places like Lulu that are open to everyone.
(***)In which case we are working from VERY different definitions of art and this essay does not apply to you :)
I don't think there's such a thing as a Real Artist, not in the sense which is in opposition to Wannabe Artists. I think that if you want to be an artist and you put your heart into creating Art then you are an artist, and that's it. Now not everyone is a good artist (though obviously judging the line is very subjective) and certainly not everyone is a professional artist. But that's about all you can say.
The Ideal Artist spends their whole life wanting to be an Artist, and goes to Art School(*), and the moment they can they quit their day job to Create Art all day, and that Art is brilliant, and they make all their living expenses off it.
But a HUGE proportion of people that noone questions the Real Artist Status of don't fit that description. There are people at every space on the continuum between Ideal Artist and Not An Artist At All. This is particularly evident if you hang out in places where there's no common explicit marker of success like being published. Where do you draw the line for Real Artist for webcomics?(**) Or fanfic?
A huge number of famous artists were never appreciated in their lifetimes.
Some very talented artists actively avoided being published/sold etc (eg Kafka).
A lot of moderately successful artists still have day jobs.
A lot of people with day jobs create stuff in their spare time.
A great many artists just saw their art as a hobby until it took off.
A great many hobbyists make money from their art.
A lot of people who do spend their whole lives wanting to be artists and quit their day jobs to pursue it are quite likely to never be appreciated, because as much as such a thing can be objectively quantified, they suck.
And yes, this is a bit personal for me, because something I realised during my Phd is that I don't have it in me to sit in my garret doing any one thing all day, whether it be maths or art or whatever. But Creating Stuff is still a vital part of who I am and what I do.
I think the reason full time professional artists can get so narky on the subject is that there's no immediately discernible difference between, say, an unemployed person who has a creative hobby to fill the time and a professional artist who just hasn't sold anything yet, and some of the former like to act as if they're the latter. Which I can imagine would be really annoying.
But policing that boundary too strongly is unfair to all the part-time/up-and-coming/unsuccessful professional artists, and it seems to cause a huge amount of self doubt and angst. And unless you believe that a piece of art's quality is measured by how much money it makes(***) then I think it's important to remember that one can be a Real Artist without being, or wanting to be, a professional artist at all.
(*)This step is less compulsory for Real Writers
(**)Some webcomics are published, but a lot of these are self published via on-demand places like Lulu that are open to everyone.
(***)In which case we are working from VERY different definitions of art and this essay does not apply to you :)
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